v. 1. The path to power -- v. 2. Means of ascent.
For his biographies of Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson, ROBERT A.
CARO has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, has three
times won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and has also won
virtually every other major literary honor, including the National
Book Award, the Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy
of Arts and Letters, and the Francis Parkman Prize, awarded by the
Society of American Historians to the book that best “exemplifies
the union of the historian and the artist.” In 2010 President
Barack Obama awarded Caro the National Humanities Medal, stating at
the time: “I think about Robert Caro and reading The Power Broker
back when I was twenty-two years old and just being mesmerized, and
I’m sure it helped to shape how I think about politics.” The London
Sunday Times has said that Caro is “The greatest political
biographer of our times.”
Caro’s first book, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of
New York, everywhere acclaimed as a modern classic, was chosen by
the Modern Library as one of the hundred greatest nonfiction books
of the twentieth century. It is, according to David
Halberstam, “Surely the greatest book ever written about a city.”
And The New York Times Book Review said: “In the future, the
scholar who writes the history of American cities in the twentieth
century will doubtless begin with this extraordinary
effort.”
The first volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, The Path to Power,
was cited by The Washington Post as “proof that we live in a great
age of biography . . . [a book] of radiant excellence . . . Caro’s
evocation of the Texas Hill Country, his elaboration of Johnson’s
unsleeping ambition, his understanding of how politics actually
work, are—let it be said flat out—at the summit of American
historical writing.” Professor Henry F. Graff of Columbia
University called the second volume, Means of Ascent, “brilliant.
No review does justice to the drama of the story Caro is telling,
which is nothing less than how present-day politics was born.” The
London Times hailed volume three, Master of the Senate, as “a
masterpiece . . . Robert Caro has written one of the truly great
political biographies of the modern age.” The Passage of Power,
volume four, has been called “Shakespearean . . . A breathtakingly
dramatic story [told] with consummate artistry and ardor” (The New
York Times) and “as absorbing as a political thriller . . . By
writing the best presidential biography the country has ever seen,
Caro has forever changed the way we think about, and read, American
history” (NPR). On the cover of The New York Times Book Review,
President Bill Clinton praised it as “Brilliant . . . Important . .
. Remarkable. With this fascinating and meticulous account Robert
Caro has once again done America a great service.”
“Caro has a unique place among American political biographers,” The
Boston Globe said . . . “He has become, in many ways, the standard
by which his fellows are measured.” And Nicholas von Hoffman wrote:
“Caro has changed the art of political biography.”
Born and raised in New York City, Caro graduated from Princeton
University, was later a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, and
worked for six years as an investigative reporter for Newsday. He
lives in New York City with his wife, Ina, the historian and
writer.
"Proof that we live in a great age of biography . . . [a book] of
radiant excellence . . . Caro's evocation of the Texas Hill
Country, his elaboration of Johnson's unsleeping ambition, his
understanding of how politics actually works are—let it be said
flat out—at the summit of American historical writing." —The
Washington Post
"A monumental political saga . . . powerful and stirring. It's an
overwhelming experience to read The Path to Power." —Christopher
Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times
"Epic. A brief review cannot convey the depth, range and detail of
this fascinating story. Caro is a meticulous historian. Every page
reflects his herculean efforts to break through the banalities and
the falsehoods previously woven around the life of Lyndon Johnson .
. . combines the social scientist's interest in power with the
historian's concern with theme and context, the political
scientist's interest in system, and the novelist's passion to
reveal the inner workings of the personality and relate them to
great human issues . . . A monument of interpretive
biography." —Michael R. Beschloss, Chicago Sun-Times Book
Week
"Not only a historical but a literary event. An epic biography . .
. A sweeping, richly detailed portrait . . . vivid [with] Caro's
astonishing concern for the humanity of his characters. An awesome
achievement." —Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek
"Stands at the pinnacle of the biographical art." —Donald R.
Morris, Houston Post
"The major biography of recent years. Brilliant . . . Magisterial .
. . Caro has given us an American life of compelling fascination. A
benchmark beside which other biographies will be measured for some
time to come." —Alden Whitman, Los Angeles Herald Examiner
"An ineradicable likeness of an American giant. Caro has brought to
life a young man so believable and unforgettable that we can hear
his heartbeat and touch him. If an earlier famous Johnson had his
Boswell, and Abraham Lincoln his Sandburg, LBJ has found a
portraitist who similarly will owe his fame to his great subject
and his certitude in taking control of it." —Henry F. Graff,
Professor of History, Columbia University
"Splendid and moving. At this rate Caro's work will eventually
acquire Gibbon-like dimensions, and Gibbon-like passion. . . . Caro
is a phenomenon . . . an artful writer, with a remarkable power to
evoke and characterize politicians, landscapes, relationships. This
massive book is almost continually exciting." —Richard Eder, Los
Angeles Times
"By every measure—depth of research, brilliance of conception, the
seamless flow of the prose—it is a masterpiece of biography." —Dan
Cryer, Newsday
"Extraordinary. A powerful, absorbing, at times awe-inspiring, and
often deeply alarming story. A vivid picture of the emergence of
one of this century's authentically great politicians." —Alan
Brinkley, Boston Sunday Globe
"The book races at Johnson's own whirlwind pace. A tour de force
that blends relentless detective work, polemical vigor and artful
storytelling into the most compelling narrative of American
political life since All the King's Men." —Henry Mayer, San
Francisco Chronicle
"A landmark in American political biography. The definitive life of
LBJ. Caro has written a Johnson biography that is richer and fuller
and may well be one of the freshest and most revealing studies ever
written about a major historical figure." —Steve Neal, Fort Worth
Star-Telegram
"Magnificent. For understanding our recent past and the men and
policies that brought the country to its present condition and
aimed us toward whatever our future is to be, it's an immensely
important work." —Bryan Woolley, Dallas Times Herald
"A brilliant and necessary book. There are whole and fascinating
areas in Johnson's life that no one else discovered." —Merle
Miller, front page, Chicago Tribune Book World
"This is a watershed book. Caro writes with sweep and passion. From
the first sentence I was hooked. All other biographies of Johnson
pale in comparison." —Joseph P. Lash
"Engrossing and revealing. This fascinating, immensely long and
highly readable book is the fullest account we have—and are ever
likely to have—of the early years of LBJ." —David Herbert Donald,
front page, The New York Times Book Review
"A superb and unique biography . . . Meticulous in research, grand
in scale, this is a major work that will remain a tower of its
kind." —Barbara Tuchman
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